*They're too quiet.**
Kai stood in the middle of the grand hall, spine straight, eyes steady—but every heartbeat felt louder than it should. The silence around him wasn't just emptiness. It was intentional. Heavy. Designed to press in and reveal what was fragile beneath the surface.
**Don't show them anything.**
He wasn't sure if that thought was his, or the voice that lived in the marrow of his mind.
The rustle came again.
From the far end of the hall, behind twin veils of sheer silk, a figure emerged. Robes the color of pale ash. Hair bound in a long crown knot. His stride was slow, deliberate, almost silent.
Kai's eyes narrowed.
There was nothing overtly threatening about him. No aura of spiritual pressure. No golden rings or fiery pupils or illusions of grandeur. He looked—plain. Almost soft.
Except his eyes.
They were sharp. Like polished obsidian left under moonlight. Calm, but too still. Too knowing.
"Kai Jin," the man said. His voice was low and even, with a cadence that made the space seem smaller somehow. "You may kneel."
Kai didn't move.
The man's eyebrow lifted a hair's breadth. He studied Kai like a sculptor examines flawed marble.
"You were not brought here by chance," he said. "Do you know who I am?"
Kai hesitated. "You're the one who sent them."
"I am Yu Zhennan, Grand Elder of the Dawning Blades. This sect is my charge. And now, you are within its walls."
Kai said nothing.
Yu stepped down from the platform and began to walk a slow arc around him, hands folded neatly.
"Your file is... interesting," he continued. "Found wandering near the Bloodwrapped Mountains. No cultivation. No clan name. Foreign tongue for the first two days. Memory loss."
He stopped directly behind Kai.
"Yet your eyes were clear. You didn't look like prey."
Kai kept his jaw locked.
"I want to understand what you are."
"I don't know."
"That, too, is interesting."
Yu moved to face him again. For a long moment, he simply watched.
Then, finally, he turned and gestured.
"Sit."
A woven mat rolled out at his command. Another appeared beside it. Kai obeyed. Reluctantly.
They sat across from one another, the air between them thick with unspoken calculations.
"Tell me," Yu said, folding his hands. "What do you want from this sect?"
Kai hesitated. "I didn't ask to come."
"Yet here you are."
"Because you forced me."
Yu inclined his head. "We guided you. There is a difference. One you may appreciate later."
Kai clenched his jaw. His fingers curled around his knees. He hated how calm the man was. How completely sure of everything.
"You have no spirit signature," Yu said, voice gentler now. "Yet... you were seen drawing the attention of beasts. You moved through formations as if they weren't there. You awoke alone in the mountains and survived. Why?"
Kai shook his head. "I don't know."
Yu looked at him, not disappointed, not angry. Just patient.
"This sect does not run on kindness. It does not reward mediocrity. But it values strength. Resourcefulness. Control."
He gestured toward the carved pillars.
"Disciples enter at age fourteen. They begin in the Outer Sect. If they show progress, they may be invited inward. Each layer reveals more teachings—more access. But also more responsibility."
Kai listened.
Yu's voice dropped slightly.
"You will be watched. Judged. If you fail to adapt..."
A pause. "You will not remain."
Kai felt the pressure behind those words, but also something else. A choice, buried beneath the threat.
"So what happens now?" he asked.
Yu gave a faint smile.
"Now? You are assigned housing. You will be tested. Observed. If you survive your first month, perhaps we will speak again."
He stood.
Kai stood, too.
Yu walked past him, then stopped just short of the doors.
"One more thing."
Kai turned slightly.
"There is something... strange about your presence. The others feel it. Even if they don't know what to call it."
Kai waited.
Yu looked over his shoulder, voice quiet.
"I do not care where your power comes from. But if it threatens this sect, I will erase you myself."
The doors opened.
Light spilled in.
Kai walked forward, and for a moment, he felt the man's eyes on his back.
**Like knives, pressed flat against skin.**